Volleyball

Volleyball, game played by two teams, usually of six players on a

side, in which the players use their hands to bat a ball back and forth
over a high net, trying to make the ball touch the court within the
opponents’ playing area before it can be returned. To prevent this a
player on the opposing team bats the ball up and toward a teammate
before it touches the court surface—that teammate may then volley it
back across the net or bat it to a third teammate who volleys it across
the net. A team is allowed only three touches of the ball before it must
be returned over the net.

Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, physical

director of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke,
Massachusetts. It was designed as an indoor sport for businessmen
who found the new game of basketball too vigorous. Morgan called the
sport “mintonette,” until a professor from Springfield College
in Massachusetts noted the volleying nature of play and proposed the
name of “volleyball.” The original rules were written by Morgan and
printed in the first edition of the Official Handbook of the Athletic
League of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North
America (1897). The game soon proved to have wide appeal for both
sexes in schools, playgrounds, the armed forces, and other
organizations in the United States, and it was subsequently introduced
to other countries.

In 1916 rules were issued jointly by the YMCA and the National

Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The first
nationwide tournament in the United States was conducted by the
National YMCA Physical Education Committee in New York City in
1922. The United States Volleyball Association (USVBA) was formed
in 1928 and recognized as the rules-making, governing body in the
United States. From 1928 the USVBA—now known as USA Volleyball
(USAV)—has conducted annual national men’s and senior men’s (age
35 and older) volleyball championships, except during 1944 and 1945.
Its women’s division was started in 1949, and a senior women’s
division (age 30 and older) was added in 1977. Other national events
in the United States are conducted by member groups of the USAV
such as the YMCA and the NCAA.

Volleyball was introduced into Europe by American troops

during World War I, when national organizations were formed.
The Fédération Internationale de Volley Ball (FIVB) was organized
in Paris in 1947 and moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1984. The
USVBA was one of the 13 charter members of the FIVB, whose
membership grew to more than 210 member countries by the late 20th
century.